Residents buying up the salt for their sidewalks and driveways to combat recent snow and ice have caused eight or nine Home Depot stores in the area to run low, a supervisor at the chain's Catonsville location said.

While commercial shelves are bare, the state's supplies are in good shape — the State Highway Administration, which maintains all numbered routes across Maryland, estimated that its salt stockpiles are around 80 percent.

At the Lowe's in Glen Burnie, Kimberly Everd has dealt with customer after customer frustrated to find that the home improvement store has been out of salt for two weeks.

"That's every call I've been getting," the customer service representative said, estimating that more than 80 percent of the customers entering the store turn right back around when they realized the salt is sold out.

It isn't just the salt that's in short supply. Space heaters and stove pellets have almost completely disappeared from shelves, Everd said, and other snow-related items, from shovels to sleds, are almost all gone.

A delivery of pellets and salt is due to arrive on Thursday, she said, "weather permitting."

Historic flooding and the coldest temperatures in decades made weather headlines in Baltimore in 2014. Rainfall records were set in April and August, and after a frigid winter, the summer was comfortable and fall cool. The year is expected to be the coolest and wettest here in years.